Spotlight Oral Care Sonic Toothbrush review

As someone who disposed of 2 broken electric toothbrushes in recent years I had once again embraced the manual toothbrush, using the bamboo versions in order to be a bit ‘greener’. But I still kept staring into the jaws of sustainability and the environment and wondering whether these more eco-friendly versions were quite as green as they seemed to suggest.

I also had some gum recession, partly due to brushing too hard, so my dentist suggested a sonic toothbrush and that was when Vegan Mum finally emerged into the 21st century! Consequently, I became the proud owner of a sustainable, modern toothbrush – one that offers as close to professional oral hygiene standards as it’s possible to get at home – and I have reviewed it here.

So, if you’re thinking about investing in one too, this Spotlight Oral Care Sonic Toothbrush review takes a closer look at the features and performance of the Sonic Pro model, its sustainability, value for money, the brand’s vegan credentials, and whether it really is more effective than both manual and traditional electric versions.

Design of the Spotlight Sonic Pro Toothbrush

The first thing I noticed when I opened the recyclable packaging of the Sonic Pro toothbrush was the simplicity of the design, despite the number of features on the product. It felt relatively lightweight – important if you’re brushing your teeth for the required 2 minutes – with a comfortably-shaped (if rather long) handle and easy to use controls.

It comes with all the necessary add-ons included in the price like the charging cable, magnetic stand, and 3 replacement heads. But it also comes with a sleek travel case which holds the handle and the toothbrush head – very handy!

As you can see, I chose the white option but it also comes in Blush Pink and Jet Black, and their standard sonic toothbrush has further colour options including Graphite Grey and Rose Gold. It is worth noting though that Spotlight’s standard sonic toothbrush, whilst offering excellent teeth-cleaning capability, does not include the travel case in its price, or the additional functions available on the Sonic Pro.

Luckily, I was also able to compare it to my daughter’s more overtly eco-conscious aluminium toothbrush from the brand ‘SURI’, designed to be ‘repairable’ and recyclable, and a modern, sleek and simple design. However, she has experienced 2 separate issues with that product in 2 years and it had to be wholly replaced – not repaired – on both occasions, so maybe it’s not quite as environmentally-friendly as it first appears.

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Focus on features and benefits

So it’s nice to look at but what can it do and why did I want one? After all, you don’t want to just (b)rush in and buy one…

Let’s start by looking at the features of the Sonic Pro:

• 4 cleaning modes – gentle, clean, white and polish (defined by the number of reps)
• sonic technology providing up to 50,000 reps / minute – this is the highest I’ve found
• 4 lights around the collar indicating when to move onto the next ‘quadrant’ (it breaks your brushing surfaces into 4 distinct areas @ 30 seconds each)
• automatic 2 minute power-off
• pressure sensor lights up red if you press too hard
• tongue cleaning surface on the back of the brush
• battery life up to 70 days (and yes, I’ve tested it!)
• 3 heads included, so up to 9 month’s worth of brushing
• travel case

And here are the benefits as I see them:

• my teeth have honestly never felt so clean and that’s down to the sonic technology that distributes the toothpaste and oxygen, shifts plaque, and all the other clever stuff it does
• the built-in quadrant timer ensures I clean all the surfaces of my teeth
• I now don’t brush my teeth for longer than I should
• the pressure sensor has almost completely stopped me from pressing too hard (my dentist is pleased because my gums are healthier!)
• as a frequent traveller, the travel case protects my toothbrush from the fluff and other crud that’s generally floating round in my bag!
• Finally, I love the long battery life – great for travelling too because I never need to pack the charger (I’ve lost count of how many chargers I’ve had to replace because I leave them in some random plug socket)

One of the features I mentioned is the 4 cleaning modes which is more than some of its competitors. I genuinely like the different options but for every day use, I tend to leave it in ‘clean’ mode. I’ve never needed to use the ‘gentle’ option, although I’m sure some people would really benefit from that. However, I do occasionally use the ‘white’ mode which seems very effective when I combine it with Spotlight’s anti-stain tooth powder – invaluable as a coffee and red wine drinker, believe me!

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My experience of using the Spotlight Sonic Pro

This toothbrush has been quite the game-changer for me in the many months that I’ve been using it. As someone who has had a multitude of problems with my teeth, I have always had to maintain regular dentist and hygienist visits despite the horrendous costs sometimes involved.

But they have both noticed the difference since I started using this (my dentist actually recommended I use a sonic toothbrush in the first place) and my teeth and gums are in much better shape with hardly no plaque build-up at all. As a result, I have been able to reduce my hygienist visits because the sonic technology delivers a much deeper clean than electric toothbrushes, and apparently removes 5 times as much plaque than a manual toothbrush too which is astounding.

I had read some other Spotlight oral care sonic toothbrush reviews mentioning that it’s a bit noisy but to be honest, I haven’t found it’s a problem and I never expected it to be silent. I also compared it to my daughter’s SURI toothbrush and although it was slightly noisier on the highest setting, there really wasn’t much in it.

But most surprisingly for me, the convert I wasn’t expecting was my husband. Perhaps tired of me moaning about the toothpaste splatters in the bathroom from his over-vigorous manual brushing, he tried out my Sonic Pro toothbrush with one of the spare heads. He loved it so much he invested in one of his own and swears he will never go back to a manual brush (for which I will be forever thankful)!

The thing that impressed him most is the huge difference in how clean his teeth feel and he recently started using the ‘white’ mode too with Spotlight’s Teeth Whitening Powder and after just a couple of weeks has noticed a real difference.

So although there is an initial cost in buying a sonic toothbrush, for me it’s a worthwhile investment and my husband – with his sparkly new smile – agrees.

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What makes me gnash my teeth?

So what are the downsides of the Sonic Pro toothbrush? Don’t get me wrong, I really like it and it does a great job of cleaning my teeth but there are a few things that I think could be better:

• the brush, and the replacement heads, are more expensive than some of their main competitors, although not all
• a recycling scheme for the heads would be good (coming from an eco-conscious and vegan perspective)
• maybe they could consider producing a case that also cleans the toothbrush – I have seen others that use UV light to do this

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Vegan Mum’s verdict

If you’re looking for a product that is going to give you professional-standard cleaning, different functions to suit your personal needs, and that has an extraordinarily good battery life, then in my experience the Spotlight Oral Care Sonic Pro toothbrush is well worth your consideration. In addition to its functionality and premium feel, the brand also has good vegan credentials with its oral care products all Peta accredited.

Yes, there are alternative brands out there and some may be slightly cheaper, but others – like the Philips Sonicare – considerably more expensive. So on balance, this toothbrush – with its market-leading reps per minute and superb cleaning results – is certainly a product that I would recommend.

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More vegan lifestyle articles

I hope you’ve found this Spotlight Oral Care Sonic toothbrush review helpful. If you would like to read more about this brand’s products, you can find them in my Best Vegan Toothpaste Guide. Some examples of further articles about vegan lifestyle products are below: